Sea World Newbie Questions

[therannj]

Any help would be great!

Is the all day dining plan worth it?
Dinner with Shamu?
Are there autographs like at Disney? If yes is there a link on this page to print any?
We are going in January just for one day. Best way to get the biggest bang for our buck?

 

[johde]

With the All Day Dining, in my opinion, if you are planning on eating at least 2 full counter service meals at the park it is almost definitely good deal. If the park closes early and you're planning on eating dinner offsite it can still be a good deal but it's harder to do. I normally try to get 2 meals and a "snack". You can normally go through the line and get any side dish or desert without getting an entrée if you want a snack. If you're feeling healthy you can get the strawberries for Fruit plate, or if your not cake.

 

[919Florida]

Is the all day dining plan worth it?

totally depends how you eat. It can be a huge money saver if you plan to eat around 2 counter service meals. Whats nice is drinks are available to grab from several locations throughout the day. The dining plan is very easy to use and its so nice to go in and not look at the menu price and get what you actually want.

Dinner with Shamu?

Its not on the All Day Dining plan but its a super experience. You go behind the scenes and see the whales in the back pool. Watch them swimming around, playing and interacting with trainers. The trainers put on a presentation and tell you how and why they do what they do and answer questions. Food is great to. Its truly a special experience to see.

Are there autographs like at Disney? If yes is there a link on this page to print any?

SeaWorld does not have as many characters as Disney has so you don't see to many in the park. Usually you will find Shamu at the front of the park in the morning and then they have Franklin making appearances over by Manta. Several other characters make surprise appearances throughout the seasons.

We are going in January just for one day. Best way to get the biggest bang for our buck?

Check out the discounted tickets on SeaWorld's website. They have great deals depending on what day you may go. You may want to pay attention to Blue Friday sales that will have on the day after thanksgiving. They usually offer some really good savings on ticket options. Go to SeaWorld's site and sign up for their emailer and you will receive all the details on blue Friday. I also recommend going opening to close so you have lots of time to take everything in and you wont feel rushed. Take in all the shows, feed the animals. Cherish the moments and ask questions to the educators. Its fun to learn at the park. Lots of great facts. Also a personal favorite of mine is the Sea Garden. Check it out and see some amazing non marine life animals that have been rescued by SeaWorld.

 

[johde]

Another thing I would add in the getting the biggest bang for your buck is to at least price out a package even if it is for 1 night. Unlike Disney and Universal where packages are frequently more expensive, Sea Worlds Packages frequently save you money if you can use all of the pieces. For example, a family of 4 with the eat free package gets.

$300 4 tickets 2 Sea World ($75)
$120 4 all you can eat Wrist Bands
$ 80 Preferred Show Seating
$ 16 1 Cup that cares refillable mug
-----
$516 in value (+tax)

1 night package at Coco key is $460 (tax included but not including up to $20 resort fee) + you get a Discount on souvenirs. The hotel night or the extras are free.

1 night package at Fairfield Inn and Suites is $497 and you also get 1 trip Quick Queue to the major rides.

 

[therannj]

Do we have to get all day dining with all tickets? Or could we just get two adult ones and get food for the kids off of our wristbands. They are not big eaters and I can't see it being worth it for them. Is there a limit to how many times you can go through the line? Thanks.

 

[johde]

Do we have to get all day dining with all tickets? Or could we just get two adult ones and get food for the kids off of our wristbands. They are not big eaters and I can't see it being worth it for them. Is there a limit to how many times you can go through the line? Thanks.

Only part of your party can have wrist bands. That being said, if they catch people sharing between wristbanded and non-wristbanded people, they will take your wristband without a refund. If you're children are 3-9 I'd go ahead and get them a child's wristband. If they are 10+ you could look at the package or ticket offers with free food (I'd double check the price of the other packages as well) or, or one meal out of pocket for the kids to share. Also, there's a decent shot the wristbands will be on sale Thanksgiving weekend if your trip is after that date.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

Any help would be great!
Is the all day dining plan worth it?

Depends on how much you pay for it. I was able to get a deeply discounted rate on our passes plus dining plan through AAA so it costs us $10 pp to add the dining plan when I purchased.... checked and right now it's 89/83 for passes with all day dining. In hindsight if I had paid regular price I would have been disappointed. Short park hours - 9a-6p so not a lot of eating time IMO. The best part to my kids was the snacking - we got 1 meal at the BBQ place then snacked the rest of the day. We did stop at a couple locations for fruit, drinks, and cookies several times. Meals were generally like any theme park - CS meal about $10, drinks/snacks varied from $3-5 each. We got our moneys worth at the discount rate but not at the list price.

Dinner with Shamu?

We did not do but I will say if you do the all day dining I would not do the dinner with Shamu or if you do Dinner with Shamu I wouldn't do all day dining. Just my opinion but your paying for food 2x this way.

Are there autographs like at Disney?

We never saw any characters to get pictures taken. When you walk in there is the SeaWorld logo with a photographer taking pictures and there are some ride photo's but we took our own photo in front of the logo and didn't need/want the ride photo's

We are going in January just for one day. Best way to get the biggest bang for our buck?

I'm extremely money conscious and like to make the most out of our trips - we did 1 day while on our 9 day WDW trip so I wanted to make sure we got the most out of our day. Some things I read/discovered:
- If you plan on riding rides like Manta/Cracken - Do not buy front of the line add on unless you get to the park and find it busy - you can add it on that day.
- Get the Antartica/Penguin area done 1st/early as the ride portion tends to back up the whole area - you go on a ride that ends in the penguin area. You choose "wild" or "tame" - wild means the ride turns/twists while tame means no turns/twists. Not as crazy as a teacup but if you get motion sickness go tame. DH cannot do spinny rides and started getting sick. It's short but if it had gone on longer (relatively short) he would have had an issue. I've read of 45 minutes to an hour wait.
- If you do the dining plan, stock up on snacks for shows. You can get a cup of strawberries, fruit cup, cookies and a drink and bring to the Shamu theater to snack while waiting for the show. My daughter & I kept getting fresh strawberries and both kids got a couple orders of cookies to bring with them in the car when we left.
- When we were there it was 3 basic shows - Dolphins, Shamu, and Pets Ahoy. Don't discount ANY of the shows thinking it's not your type of show. I figured we'd pass on Pets Ahoy and we ended up going to it due to it starting to rain and theater was indoors. We really liked that show - super cute.

1 of the extra things I did book was an up close dolphin tour. Pricey but was sooo worth it for us. My DS13 loves dolphins and I surprised them with this add-on. There are multiple up close tours you can consider - penguins, beluga whales, dolphins, etc. I personally would rather add in a close up tour over dinner with Shamu but to each their own.